Gel II Reaction Colours Gel Polish

18 Oct Gel II Reaction Colours Gel Polish

I don’t normally go for gimmicky make-up, and when I was first offered a Gel II™ manicure at the marvellous Hairven hair and beauty emporium in Nottingham, I wasn’t especially convinced. Colour changing nail polish? How very 90s!

Anyway, with a couple of events coming up I was after a colour that would complement both my outfits so I decided on blue – the shade name is Rip Tide R124.

The first thing that’s different about Gel II™ in comparison to other gel polish systems is that it requires no base coat; simply apply two coats of Gel II™ gel polish, cure for 60 seconds between coats, and apply Gel II™ top coat for shine.

According to their website, it is non-solvent and free of harmful elements, and was created for people who are allergic and sensitive to gels and polishes that have base coats and primers.

Reaction gel polish transforms with your body heat; to see the colours change, run hands under cold and/or warm water. When Rip Tide is first applied it’s a mid-blue, when hands are cold it changes to dark blue, when hands are warm to hot it’s sky blue.

Anything in-between and you get a cool tie-die or French manicure effect (bottom pic) which I tried to photograph whenever it happened!

And what about longevity? Absolutely no chipping or lifting for three weeks plus. I have to admit it is very clever, and I am now quite sold – see for yourself:

Since writing the majority of this blog post I have had the gel removed professionally and it took forever to soak off, in fact even when we thought it had all gone, traces of the colour could still be seen on my nails when my hands were cold.

So I guess the trade off for the staying power of Gel II™ is that it may be a pain to remove – although if you’re using the brand’s own soak off and not other brands like me, it may be quicker.